Kindly Póg Mo Thóin

Haven’t done a food post for a while. Here’s the cake I made for my birthday:

First, the basic recipe:

Crazy Cake

Preheat oven to 350.

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar (yes, vinegar! It’s the leavening agent along with the baking soda. It will not make the cake taste funny, I promise)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups cold water

Sift the dry ingredients together into a bowl (the recipe I cribbed from said to make it right in an ungreased 9×13 cake pan, but I remain dubious about that). Make 3 wells in the dry ingredients; pour vinegar in one, oil in another, and vanilla in the third, then pour the water over all. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated, but do not overbeat. If you’re using a 9×13 cake pan, bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

You could ice it, if the spirit moves you, but I like this as is. It’s got a nice clean chocolate taste to it. I made this in law school a lot, and would give out loaves of it. A friend of mine kept hers in the freezer and would throw a little Jack Daniels on a half-frozen slice before warming it in the microwave. That was pretty good.

Now, the tweaks: I made this in two loaf pans, and made 1.5 times the recipe thinking I’d need more to fill two pans, but it was really too much. I baked it for somewhere over an hour, though I lost track of how much longer. Someday, I’ll have an oven with a built-in timer. Or replace my timer. I’ll get right on that.

Anyhow, this time out I added two grated zucchinis to the batter, used a mix of white and wheat flour, used Dutch-processed cocoa (which is darker than the Hershey’s stuff), used about double the amount of cocoa called for in the recipe, and added cinnamon, cloves and orange peel to the batter. I’ve made this in the past using applesauce to replace the oil, which makes for a very moist and low-fat cake, but does alter the flavor a bit. Hence the spices. Good spices to use are cinnamon and ginger, cinnamon and a combination of cayenne and black pepper, or whatever floats your boat. You could also use Guinness to replace some or all of the water, too; I’ve never had chocolate Guinness cake, but I’ve heard the Guinness really intensifies the chocolate flavor. I’m going to try that the next time I make this.

Just a word of caution: don’t drop any of this in front of twitchy school security guards.